Some three years ago, the Bankers’ Automated Clearing Service, BACS, set up by the high street banks in 1971 to provide an automated clearing house, began to expand its customer base by extending the service to some 36,000 smaller users. Picking up on this trend, a 15-month-old Bushey, Hertfordshire-based company, Flexitran Ltd, has introduced a system designed to give individual business users access to the BACS system via an MS-DOS micro (CI No 911). Essentially, the Cashbacs system, first demonstrated by the company at the Business-to-Business show in June, comprises Flexitran-developed software and communications. Flexitran claims that, once sponsorship with one of the six BACS operating banks has been arranged, the product can be used by companies as a low-cost electronic alternative to standard paper based credits – salaries, pensions, trade payments, dividends, grants – and for the direct debiting of insurance premiums, mortgage and loan repayments, rentals, subscriptions and gas, electricity and water bills. Once collated and sorted, the data is sent either to Flexitran, which operates a batch-processing bureau for small numbers of transactions, or direct to BACS itself: cost per transaction depends primarily on the existing relationship between bank and customer but will range from 13 pence to eight pence. Banking charges and the bureau option aside, Flexitran argues that the product can create further savings by enabling users to control and manipulate their cash flow from their desks: by using the system, all transactions can be routed and timed up to 40 days in advance. Cashbacs can also be used to handle credit card transactions, leading to potentially reduced commission rates and fraud losses; the system automatically checks each card against an updated stolen list, downloaded weekly from the Flexitran bureau. The company maintains that the system is extremely secure – different operator security levels can be entered into the system, while Flexitran insists upon its own employees carrying out every stage of installation. Priced at UKP2,350 for the stand-alone system currently running on Amstrad PCW8512s – and UKP1,400 for the software and communications facility, Flexitran claims that the product has already generated enquiries from over 200 companies. The company is currently installing two systems, and expects a deal with a London bus company, which plans to integrate the product within its existing ticketing system, to be finalised next week. Plans are also afoot to attach the product to a major airline reservation system, and enter into a joint venture deal with a large Plc which is looking to integrate Cashbacs with its own communications product. With estimates for first year sales of the product set firmly in the 1,000 region and inevitable huge expansion on the cards, Flexitran is now busy talking to agents around the country, in a bid to set up a regional network of distributors.
